in us---to humble ourselves before God for our errors and transgressions, and to implore his forgiveness of them to retrench our enjoyments, that the body and mind being brought under subjection to the restraints of virtue and religion, may be the better disposed to the fear and service of God---and that, by comparing our lives with the holy law of our God, we may be led to repentance and amendment.

May God give us all this grace of true repentance; inspire us with resolution to mortify our sensual and worldly desires; confirm our good resolutions; strengthen our faith, and perfect our obedience; and, when this life is ended, receive us to his mercy, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

DISCOURSE XIII.

PART I.

THE FATAL EFFECTS OF OBSTINATE UNBELIEF AND IMPENITENCY.

LUKE XI. 24, 25, 26.

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, be saith, I will return to my house whence I came out.... And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth be, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: And the last state of that man is worse than the first.

THE

HE obscurity of this text must be perplexing to common readers: To clear it we must attend to the preceding history and discourse.

A man under the power of the evil spirit, (who among other distresses which he had brought on him, had deprived him of his speech) was brought to Christ, that he might by his power be delivered from his miserable condition. Christ's goodness readily interposed, freed the man from the power of the devil, and restored his speech to him. The people before whom the miracle was wrought were astonished at the event. But there were some among them of the sect of the Pharisees, who not being able to deny the reality of the miraculous cure, and fearing it might have a strong impression on the spectators in favor of Christ, endeavoured to take off their attention by persuading them that he acted in con

junction with the devil, and by a power which he had received from him....That the end and design of this combination was to establish the power of the devil, by destroying the religion and Church of God among them, and reducing them to the idolatry of the Romans under whose government they then were....That to accomplish this wicked design, it was necessary to raise the repu tation of Jesus, that his influence over the people might be sufficient to answer the purpose....That for this reason, Beelzebub, the head and prince of the devils, had entered into a combination with him, and had given him power to cure those who were possessed, that his fame and influence might enable him to persuade the giddy multitude to follow whithersoever he should chose to lead them..." He casteth out devils," said they, "through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils."

This calumny our Saviour thought proper to confute; and three reasons are assigned by him to shew its folly and absurdity.

1. That every kingdom, nation, or family divided against itself must come to ruin. For if two parties act by opposite counsels, and pursue opposite ends, one must counteract and undo what is done by the other, By which means their interest will suffer, their strength will be weakened, and their power at last be brought to nothing. If this reasoning be applied to the society of devils...the kingdom of satan; and their prince be supposed to give power over them to another...to Jesus for instance...to counteract, and dispossess, and drive them out of those persons into whom they had entered; their power was divided, and the weakness and ruin of their kingdom must be the consequence. So that on the very supposition which the Pharisees made, that Christ cast out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils; could it have been true, instead of promoting and establishing the devil's kingdom, it must have weakened and destroyed it.

2. The second reason is taken from their own practice. They had exorcists among them who did, or,

Vol. 1.

I i

who they pretended, did cast satan out of those who were possessed by him; and their success they ascribed to God. Now, why should not Christ's success in casting out devils be ascribed to God, as well as the success of their exorcists? How absurd to attribute the power of one to God, and the power of the other, though exerted at least with an equally happy issue, to the devil?

Some have doubted the fact, that the Jews had such exorcists among them; and have supposed that when Christ said, "By whom do your sons cast them out ?" he referred to the seventy Disciples whom he had sent out to preach and do miracles in his name. They were sons in the sense in which the word is used here; that is, they were Jews by birth. On this supposition, the argument will stand thus... Those seventy persons, all Jews, sons of Abraham, and in covenant with God, who have been lately preaching, and casting out devils, and doing other wonderful works in your towns and villages ....by whom did they cast out devils? Can you suppose they all acted in confederacy with satan, and by his power? If not, why should such a combination be imputed to me? "Therefore shall they be your judges ;" and by their judgment you must be condemned, who ascribe their success to the power of God, and mine, under the same circumstances, to the power of the devil.

3. The third reason is this.... That no one can rob a strong man of his goods, who is armed and watching them, unless he be first able to overcome the strong man, and to secure him. Then indeed he would have both him and his goods in his power. Christ, therefore, being able to overcome satan, and to drive him out of those who were possessed by him, must have more power than satan had, and therefore could not receive his power from satan.

This last reason is introduced and followed by most serious and weighty admonitions of the heinous guilt and impending danger of their hypocritical conduct in this matter For it being evident that Christ did not

cast out devils by any combination with satan, it must follow that he did cast them out by the power of God, and therefore the kingdom of God....the promised Messiah, who was to set up that kingdom in the world, and to› beat down and destroy the kingdom of satan, was come among them. He then warns them of the danger they incurred, by opposing what he was doing to destroy the kingdom of the devil; "He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth;" that is, he who does not assist me in setting up the kingdom of God, and gathering men into it; but on the contrary, opposeth and counteracteth my endeavours, scattereth them, and driveth them away, and is fighting a gainst the interest of God's kingdom. Then follows the parable of the Text, "When the unclean spirit is As if Christ had said to them... As for you, gone," &c. who see satan driven out by me from those bodies which he hath possessed, and yet take part with him against. me, ascribing that superiority over him which I have by the power of God, to a combination and compact with him: Take notice of the similitude which I now address to you, and which shall in due time be exactly fulfilled....The unclean spirit whom ye now see subject to my power, and cast by me out of your countrymen, shall retire into the country of the idolatrous Gentiles....the barren and dry places not yet watered by the Gospel and grace of God...There he shall endeavour to get a resting place for himself to dwell in; but he shall not find it : Thither shall the Gospel pursue him; and by the preaching and miraculous powers of my Disciples he shall be driven from his temples and oracles, and from the bodies and souls of those Gentiles who shall be converted 'unto God. Finding none so fit to entertain him as you are, from whom he is now cast out, he shall return unto you then more hardened in sin; and shall find you like an empty house, swept, and ornamented, and ready to receive its inhabitants. Then will he enter into you with seventy-fold power, take more durable possession of you than ever, make you seven times more his chil